Timor heads for freedom as voters defy gunmen

After 25 years of repressive occupation by the Indonesian military, the people of East Timor yesterday seized the historic opportunity to determine their own future by flocking to vote in a referendum on independence. The huge turnout makes it almost certain the vote will be in favour of breaking ties with Jakarta.

Defying massive intimidation by pro-Indonesia armed militias, and enduring hours of walking and waiting under a tropical sun, about 90% of the 438,000 registered voters went to the polls. Counting begins today and the final result is due within the week.

The expected overwhelming vote for independence is likely to have serious consequences for the rest of Indonesia, where several provinces are campaigning for similar treatment.

Dozens of East Timorese were killed in the run-up to the vote as the militias established by the Indonesian army waged a campaign of terror and violence to derail the referendum.

The pro-independence leader Jose "Xanana" Gusmao, who is under house arrest in Jakarta, said the referendum "marks once and for all the end of our long suffering and today we affirm our sovereignty as a people. We have overcome the difficulties, the suffering and bloodshed, the grief and the sorrow (of the last 24 years)".

Indonesia's former dictator, Suharto, invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it the following year, a move never recognised by the UN. More than 200,000 people died in the first three years of occupation but Jakarta never completely pacified the territory.

In January Mr Suharto's successor, B.J. Habibie, accepted defeat: if the East Timorese rejected his offer of wide-ranging autonomy, he would give them their freedom. The UN was asked to organise the referendum.

Few people believed the task would be possible, given the three-month deadline, particularly in the face of increasing militia violence against both the local population and UN personnel. Militias, often openly accompanied by Indonesian security forces, prevented pro-independence groups opening offices in many towns and destroyed numerous centres that did open. In some areas the pro-independence side was unable to campaign at all.

So today's scenes confounded all expectations. Many people camped at polling stations overnight and queues were often half a mile long before dawn as people demonstrated their refusal to submit to the terror.

"Today is too important for us," said Carlos Pinto dos Santos, a farmer in the village of Laulada. "We are all prepared to risk everything in order to vote."

John Aglionby in Dili

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.

Historic articles from the Guardian archive, compiled by the Guardian research and information department (follow us on Twitter @guardianlibrary). For further coverage from the past, take a look at the Guardian & Observer digital archive, which contains every issue of both newspapers from their debut to 2000 - 1.2m items, fully searchable and viewable online